On Aug. 15, at a now-defunct club called the Lighthouse in Lake Hopatcong, The Nerds took the stage for the first time.

More than 30 years later, the four bespectacled, plaid-wearing, wisecracking, funky cover music-playing lads are still going strong. On Friday, they intend to prove it at Bethlehem's Musikfest Cafe.

"We really concentrate on the music," Garcia says in a phone interview from his home. "Obviously, we're not trying to look good. Nobody's striking any cool poses. We're actually making an effort to look as ridiculous as we can, without getting all Urkel about it."

Yes, they're nerds, but they're not all in your face about it. "Revenge of The Nerds" may have come out the year before the band was born, but these are more subtle nerds, based loosely on characters created by Bill Murray and Gilda Radner in the early years of "Saturday Night Live."

"We take just this just 'not-trying-to-be-a-rock-star' approach and just really concentrate on playing," says Garcia, the band's lead singer and bassist who goes by the name of "Spaz" on stage. "But the biggest thing that we concentrate on is just intensity and the energy."

They may not be ranked along side fellow New Jersey-bred rockers Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi or the Asbury Jukes. But in their own geeky way, The Nerds have become rock stars of notable stature in their home state, where they have cultivated thousands of fans across two generations by making an impression one show at a time.

"We've had the luxury of time where we've had people come up to us and say, 'Oh man, I'm 40 years old now, but you guys defined my college career.' That blows my mind," Garcia says.

"What's even stranger, though, is people coming to book us for their wedding and, saying 'My parents met at one of your shows a long time ago and loved you guys ever since. It's been a family thing to come see you guys at Long Beach Island every year. Now, I'm getting married so I want you guys to come and play at our wedding.'

"This is fantastic. This is better than the dollar. It's just the appreciation or the impact — that you mattered, for at least two hours, to this person."

Along the way there have been some brushes with a fame that extends beyond the Garden State.

In 2000, The Nerds hosted MTV's "Ultimate Cover Band Contest," which ultimately was won by Strangers With Candy, a band from Wilkes-Barre whose lead guitarist, Aaron Fink, later carved out a name for himself as lead guitarist for Breaking Benjamin.

This year, The Nerds were the subject of a 16-minute rockumentary, which was shown at the Big Apple Film Festival and can be seen in its entirety on YouTube.

The Nerds have also appeared "about four times" on "The View," and also on the "Carson Daly Show," according to the band's website. The web page also boasts that band posters have appeared on several episodes of "Law and Order."

No matter how much they make fun of themselves, after three decades, The Nerds remain the venerable kings of the summer bar-band scene on the Jersey shore. They played 76 shows there from June through Labor Day last summer, Garcia says.

During the off-season, they'll play weddings and corporate events all over the country as well as book club dates in the Northeast — New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, as well as New Jersey — to stay close to their homes and families.

The Nerds have been to Bethlehem before. This will be their second visit to the Musikfest Cafe. They've also played at Musikfest, which Garcia described as a "religious experience."

"First of all, you're under a big tent. So right away it looks like a revival," Garcia says. "And then to have all those people just singing along with us on 'Piano Man,' just thousands of (people all holding Musikfest mugs) swaying back and forth and singing at the top of their lungs. That's amazing stuff. You're never too jaded to miss that."

At 58, Garcia says keeping the physical stamina to perform a high-energy show night after night has not been the biggest challenge for him and his band mates — drummer Jack "Biff" Yocum, guitarist Peter "Stretch" Oltmanns and keyboardist Mike "Mongo" Spiro. Tarkanish, the man who gave Garcia the idea, is still the band's manager.

"The hard thing at our age really has become finding new music," Garcia says. "In the course of my lifetime, I've had to reinvent myself and my musical taste at least six times."

The band's foundations are classic rock, funk and R&B, sometimes mashing it up in interesting ways.

"We'll play some really serious stuff and then some really silly stuff," Garcia continues. "We'll play 'Dancing Queen' by Abba and then go into a Doors song in the middle of it. Because what's better than combining the Doors and Abba?"

But like any cover band, they've sought to remain contemporary by picking out a few current hits that appealed to them, Garcia says. Most recently, that has meant including songs like Flo Rida's "My House," or "Uptown Funk," by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars.

"It's always been a cherry-picking process for us," Garcia says. "We stay away from EDM and stuff like that because, in our opinion, it's just soulless crap. But that's my opinion.

"I indulge my opinion and we don't play that stuff. But the stuff that we did play is stuff that we found endearing or challenging or something that really rocks. And then we just get out there and do it as best as we can."

More than 20 years ago, The Nerds flirted with the idea of becoming a different kind of band — one that produced original music. After establishing itself for nearly 10 years, they decided to make their first record, "Poultry in Motion," which featured original songs.

But the band wasn't satisfied with how the original material drained the energy out of their live shows, which had become their bread and butter.

"We would play some of the songs and some people would like them, but most of the time, it was like when Bruce Springsteen plays something off the new album — that's when everybody gets up to get popcorn and go to the bathroom," Garcia says.

"The only way to do the original stuff is to totally dedicate yourself to that, believe in it and pursue that branch, which is a completely, completely different branch. It's a completely different tree from the live music, club scene thing. We were not willing to do that."

There isn't a hint of regret in that decision.

"It's a fantastic living. It's all that we do. It's our only job," Garcia says. "Considering you have four grown men and their only job is playing in a band, it's good and we're really, really grateful for having had this opportunity. And it still keeps rolling on.

"It's almost like you're getting away with murder. But it's not murder. You're getting away with your passion."